EXCAVATIONS  AT  TELL  EL-AMARNA, 
EGYPT,  IN  1913-1914 


1  ^E^^' 

BY 

LUDWIG  BORCHARDT 


DT75 
T25B7 


1 


I 


DT75 
TZS1B>7 

EXCAVATIONS  AT  TELL  EL-AMARNA, 
EGYPT,  IN  1913-1914 


BY 


LUDWIG  BORCHARDT 


FROM  THE  SMITHSONIAN  REPORT  FOR  1915,  PAGES  445-457 
(WITH  13  PLATES) 


(Publication  2399) 


WASHINGTON 
GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE 
1921 


AKHXATOX  PHARAOH  OF  EGYPT 

1375-1358  B.C. 


The  Egypt  Exploration  Society 

at  Tell  El  Amariia 


The  Egypt  Exploration  Society,  now  in  its  thirty-ninth 
year,  is  excavating  the  most  important  site  in  Upper  Aliddle 
Egypt.  Tell  el-Amarna,  one  hundred  and  sixty  miles  south 
of  Cairo  on  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Nile,  is  marked  by  a  vast 
ampitheatre  of  low,  sandy  hills  worn  by  water-courses;  by 
a  narrow  strip  of  cultivation  along  the  river;  by  three  vil- 
lages from  north  to  south,  and  near  the  largest  village  heaps 
of  bricks,  fragments  of  stone,  broken  walls  running  in  every 
direction,  and  finally  by  the  half-filled  trenches  of  excava- 
tors and  one  long  street  among  the  ruins  cleared  by  the 
German  Oriental  Society.  The  city  was  built  on  a  regular 
plan  having  many  cross  streets  and  three  long  main  streets 
of  handsome  buildings  with  fine  sculptures  and  gardens 
filled  with  trees  and  plants  of  every  kind.  It  was  divided 
into  two  separate  quarters  by  a  valley,  now  packed  with 
sand  and  gravel.  Here  excavation  is  slow  on  account  of  solid 
debris  between  house-walls  due  to  alluviation  and  rubbish 
from  upper  buildings. 

This  corner  of  the  earth  has  known  strange  fortunes. 
From  a  mere  dependency  of  Hermopolis  with  no  life  of  its 
own,  it  became  the  seat  of  imperial  administration.  For 
i\khnaton,  Pharaoh  from  1375  to  1358  B.C.,  repudiated 
the  Amen-Priesthood,  abandoned  Thebes,  and  founded 
here  his  glorious  new  capital  ''Like  Aton  in  heaven  forever 
and  ever."  Yet  within  twenty  years  reaction  set  in.  The 
king  died ;  the  religious  revolution  ended ;  the  court  returned 
to  Thebes  and  the  wonder  city  of  a  Pharaoh's  dream  was 
once  more  a  desolate  place. 

Suddenly  in  1887  the  attention  of  scientists  was  directed 
to  the  forgotten  capital.  Natives,  pulling  down  a  portion 
of  the  palace  wall  for  building  material,  came  upon  a  store- 
room filled  with  bricks  of  very  fine  grain,  each  covered  with 
cuneiform  writing.    Every  peasant  in  Egypt  knows  the 


soil  contains  treasures.  The  tablets  were  hastily  heaped 
in  baskets,  fastened  to  the  backs  of  donkeys,  and  a  few 
days  later  the  dealers  in  Luxsor  and  Cairo  had  on  sale  the 
diplomatic  correspondence  of  Amenhetep  III  and  Amenhe- 
tep  IV  (Akhnaton)  with  the  Babylonian  and  Syrian  dynasts. 
This  casual  find  of  documents  of  absorbing  historical  inter- 
est led  Professor  Petrie  to  commence  excavation  of  the 
actual  buildings. 

In  1891  he  cleared  a  group  of  town  houses,  finding  more 
cuneiform  tablets,  the  great  temple  and  king's  palace  with 
its  wonderful  painted  pavements  representing  ponds  of  fish, 
flowering  shrubs,  leaping  animals,  butterflies  and  birds  in 
flight,  all  rendered  in  a  very  naturalistic  style.  These  paint- 
ings, among  the  most  valuable  monuments  in  the  realistic 
art  of  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  were  wantonly  destroyed  by 
a  discharged  workman  in  191^2,  a  misfortune  that  emphasizes 
the  need  for  excavation  and  scientific  record  at  a  site  remote 
and  difficult  for  the  government  to  protect. 

From  1907  the  German  Oriental  Society  held  the  site 
and  in  1911  commenced  the  systematic  clearance  of  the 
city,  building  by  building.  During  the  summer  of  1913 
thieves  again  broke  into  one  of  the  toml^-chapels  and  de- 
stroyed reliefs  to  revenge  the  discharge  of  a  caretaker. 
This  second  act  of  malicious  destruction  makes  it  impera- 
tive to  save  monuments  so  precious  without  delay.  The 
German  work  ended  in  1914  with  the  clearance  of  the  long 
"Street  of  the  High-Priest,''  which  developed  into  an 
Egyptian  Pompeii  of  noble  villas.  Xowhere  else  in  Egypt 
is  there  such  an  opportunity  for  studying  the  dwellings  of 
the  ancients.  The  "House  of  Meryra,  High-Priest  of  the 
Sun-Disk"  with  its  halls,  gardens,  kiosks  and  lake;  the 
House  of  the  Chief  Cattle-Herder  of  the  Sun-God."  with 
its  pillared  stalls  for  the  sacred  animals,  its  garden  of  many 
trees  planted  in  soil  brought  from  a  distance;  the  fine  resi- 
dence of  General  Rames  all  aftord  an  intimate  acquaintance 
with  the  pleasant  life  in  this  city  of  peace.  Superb  treasures 
of  art  were  collected  from  these  houses;  the  studio  of  the 


Chief  Sculptor  Thothnies"  yielded  trial  pieces,  models, 
and  extraordinary  portrait  statuary  of  the  royal  family, 
now  in  Cairo  and  Berlin. 

From  the  city  broad  roads,  still  scored  by  Akhnaton's 
chariot  wheels,  lead  to  the  rock-cut  tombs  of  officials  of  the 
court.  The  scenes  painted  on  their  walls  complete  the  work 
of  the  excavations.  With  their  help  one  obtains  an  idea  of 
the  class  of  buildings  to  be  cleared,  of  the  arrangement  of 
streets  and  gardens,  and  can  restore  in  imagination  the 
furniture  and  decorations.  ''The  Rock  Tombs  of  El 
Amarna, "  published  in  six  volumes  by  the  Society  are 
important  in  connection  with  the  excavations  of  the  site. 

The  lean,  ascetic  figure  of  Akhnaton  singing  the  exquisite 
hymns  which  he  had  composed;  or  in  his  beautiful  palace 
teaching  a  new  art  to  his  puzzled  artists;  or  preaching  from 
the  temple  his  doctrine  of  peace  while  his  empire  in  Asia 
tottered  and  fell,  stamps  its  impression  upon  one's  mind 
so  forcefully  that  every  page  and  plate  is  full  of  interest. 

Two-thirds  of  the  town  remains  to  be  excavated,  with 
probably  as  much  of  value  to  be  found  as  has  already  been 
discovered.  But  all  such  work  is  far  more  costly  than  of 
old  and  to  deal  adequately  with  so  large  a  site  the  Society 
appeals  for  generous  support.  The  quota  for  this  season  is 
$10,000.  American  Museums  are  invited  to  correspond  with 
the  secretary,  Mrs.  Marie  N.  Buckman,  at  503,  Tremont 
Temple,  Boston,  regarding  subscriptions  to  the  El-Amarna 
Fund.  The  committee  appeals  to  all  who  are  interested  in 
Egypt  to  assist  the  work  at  El-Amarna  either  by  donation 
or  by  becoming  members  of  the  Society. 


Checks  should  be  made  payable  to  the  Egypt  Explora- 
tion Society  and  sent  to  503,  Tremont  Temple,  Boston, 
Mass.  Send  for  circulars  regarding  publications. 


Life-Membership  

Patron's  Membership  for  the  Year 
Annual  Membership  


$150.00 
25.00 
10.00 


FREDERICK  P.  FISH, 

Honorary  Secretary  for  the  United  States, 


EXCAVATIONS  AT  TELL  EL-AMARNA,  EGYPT,  IIS 

1913-1914.1 


By  LUDWIG  BORCHARDT. 


nVith  13  plates.,] 

Following  the  discoveries  of  last  year,  which  were  mainly  at 
the  houses  of  the  chief  sculptor  Thutmes  and  his  workmen  (pi.  1, 
P  47,  1-3),  it  was  natural  this  year  to  investigate  the  adjoining 
estates,  so  far  as  they  had  not  been  previously  excavated.  The 
excavation  was  therefore  started  westward  from  the  Thutmes'  house 
and  following  the  northern  edge  of  the  Wadi  extended  to  the  main 
street  which  connects  the  modern  villages  Hagg  Qandil  and  Et-Till 
(see  pi.  1).  This  street,  corresponding  to  the  main  thoroughfare 
of  the  old  city,  was  reached  at  house  N  47,  1.  There  were  also 
laid  bare  the  groups  of  houses  Q  48,  1-3  and  O  48,  14-15  among 
the  hills  rising  from  the  Wadi.  Behind  the  first  row  of  estates, 
west  of  ''the  street  of  the  high  priest"  and  north  of  the  Wadi, 
the  premises  lying  westw^ard  were  disposed  of  as  also  a  block  of 
smaller  estates,  Q  46,  18-23,  to  the  north  of  "the  Christmas  house" 
(Weihnachtshaus) ,  Q  46,  1.  On  the  east  side  of  this  part  of  ''the 
street  of  the  high  priest,"  between  it  and  the  eastern  city  line, 
several  estates  were  cleared  up,  and  the  work  was  considerably 
advanced  northward.  The  area  of  the  city  so  far  excavated  was 
thus  about  the  form  of  a  T,  the  upper  or  horizontal  bar  running 
from  south-southwest  to  north-northeast — from  M  51  to  Q  45 — 
and  the  perpendicular  bar  extending  from  west-northwest  to  east- 
southeast — from  N  47-48  to  Q  48-49.  The  lower  bar  at  the  present 
state  of  the  work  appears  split  into  two  strips  of  houses  separated 
by  the  Wadi,  though  it  is  certain  that  in  ancient  times  the  entire 
ground  was  fully  built  up. 

Strange  as  it  may  appear,  the  ancient  Egyptians  in  building  up  an 
area  did  not  take  the  precaution  to  leave  the  lower  levels  free  of 
structures.  They  apparently  disregarded  rains  in  distant  parts  of 
the  desert  which  caused  torrents  to  rush  into  the  Nile  Valley  carry- 


»  Abstract  translated  from  Mitteilungen  der  Deutschen  Orient-Gesellschaft  zu  Berlin,  No.  55,  December, 
1914,  pp.  1-45. 

3403&-21  445 


446         ANNUAL  REPORT  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION,  1915. 

ing  everything  before  them,  although  the  experience  of  millenniums 
should  have  taught  them  better.  The  difference  of  level  which  thus 
far  could  be  established  between  the  floor  of  house  Q  48,  3  and 
that  of  N  47,  6  amounts  to  4.50  meters  which  is  quite  a  marked 
difference  considering  that  these  houses  are  only  about  480  meters 
apart.  The  same  mistake  was  made  in  the  palace  of  Amenophis 
III,  south  of  Medinet  Habu,  and  elsewhere.  The  ancient  Egyptian 
architects  were,  however,  not  alone  in  committing  this  error,  for 
their  modern  colleagues  and  even  Europeans  building  in  Egypt  do 
no  better.  As  a  result  of  this  thoughtlessness  and  carelessness  of 
transient  engineers,  parts  of  the  railway  dams,  even  in  the  recent 
decades,  have  often  been  swept  away  by  floods,  and  in  1895  an  en- 
tire corner  of  the  place  of  Heluan  in  Cairo  was  carried  off. 

The  appearance  of  the  excavations  in  the  Wadi  differs  from  that 
in  the  rest  of  the  city  area.  Elsewhere  the  house  ruins  appear  as 
flat,  desert  hills  where  the  still  remaining  upper  rows  of  masonry 
are  brought  to  light  with  the  first  stroke  of  the  pick.  In  the  Wadi 
a  layer  of  sand  or  pebble,  0.5  to  1  meter  deep,  must  first  be  removed 
before  the  upper  parts  of  the  walls,  1.5  meter  or  more  in  height,  ap- 
pear. The  debris  between  the  walls  is  here  also  more  compact,  due 
to  alluviation  and  not  merely  to  the  rubbish  from  the  upper  build- 
ings. 

As  the  Wadis,  which  now  form  a  break  in  the  city  area,  must  once 
have  been  fully  built  up,  the  extensive  interruption  of  the  ruin  field 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  modern  cemeter}^  of  Et-Till  must  be  con- 
sidered as  only  incidental,  and  those  parts  of  the  ruins  formerly 
termed  northern  settlements  must  once  have  been  directly  connected 
with  the  present  main  part  of  the  city. 

We  thus  obtain  a  city  area  of  about  7  kilometers  from  north  to 
south  with  a  greatest  width  of  only  1.5  kilometers.  This  elongated 
form  of  the  city,  probably  in  part  conditioned  by  its  location  along 
the  river,  is  accounted  for  chiefly  through  its  origin,  which  is  even 
now  clearly  perceptible.  The  city  was  built  on  a  long  street  which 
ran  parallel  to  the  course  of  the  river  or,  since  the  river  limited  its 
development  on  the  west  side,  more  toward  the  east  on  the  main  street. 
This  main  street,  which  probably  already  existed  as  a  country  road 
when  the  city  was  founded,  originally  connected  the  palace  and  temple 
quarters  near  modern  Et-Till  with  the  similarly  important  quarter 
at  the  modern  village  Hagg  Qandil.  This  main  thoroughfare  still 
exists  as  a  connecting  road  between  these  villages,  and  appears  on  the 
plan  (pi.  1)  between  the  premises  M  47,  2-6  and  M  47,  1.  The  first 
plan  of  the  city  was  probably  limited  to  the  building  up  of  both  sides 
of  the  main  street  and  later  other  broad  streets  were  laid  out,  running 
parallel  to  the  main  thoroughfare,  but  bending  toward  it  from  the 


EXCAVATIONS  IN  EGYPT — BORGHARDT. 


447 


north  and  south,  and  probably  leading  from  certain  important  cen- 
ters to  the  main  street.  The  first  of  these  broad  parallel  streets  which 
thus  far  can  be  traced,  may  be  seen  on  the  plan  in  front  of  house  L  50, 
1,  between  the  houses  N  48,  15  and  O  48,  8,  in  front  of  the  house  O 
48,  13,  and  between  O  47,  2-4  and  P  47,  19.  The  next,  apparently  the 
most  extreme  parallel  street,  is  the  one  termed  Oberpriester-Strasse 
(street  of  the  high  priest)  and  has  been  fully  described  in  Mitteilun- 
gen  der  Deutschen  Orient  Gesellschaft,  No.  52,  page  7. 

The  necessary  connections  between  these  main  arteries  of  the  city 
were  narrow  cross  streets  varying  from  1.50  meter  (?)  to  10  meters 
in  width.  They  are  clearly  visible,  as  shown  on  the  plan  between  the 
premises  extending  from  Q  46  to  P  48,  but  good  examples  of  them 
are  also  recognizable  south  of  the  Wadi  at  the  end  of  the  ''high 
priests'  street. "  These  cross  streets  do  not  always  run  in  a  straight 
line,  but  some  are  of  a  rectangular  outline,  as  the  one  between  Q  46,  2 
and  Q  47,  9. 

So  m.uch  concerning  the  streets  within  the  city  the  system  of 
which  is  gradually  becoming  more  distinct.  But  likewise  as  regards 
the  long-known  street  outside  of  the  city  area,  to  which  the  mapping 
of  the  region  has  added  a  large  number,  some  views  may  now  be 
given  which  may  correct  former  statements  on  this  subject.  In  the 
first  place,  a  sharp  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  earlier  streets 
of  the  time  of  Amenophis  IV  and  later  ones.  One  of  the  older 
streets  was  no  doubt  the  one  which  led  far  into  the  desert  to  the  ala- 
baster quarry  of  the  Old  Kingdom,  having  a  length  of  17.5  kilo- 
meters, and  in  some  places  presenting  for  its  time  creditable  ''art 
structures,"  such  as  ramps  and  fortified  side  slopes.  Two  other 
roads  on  the  eastern  plateau  lead  still  farther  into  the  desert  and  to 
the  stone  quarry  located  24  kilometers  from  the  Nile  in  an  air  line. 
This  is  an  alabaster  quarry.  Its  original  circular  entrance  shaft  led 
through  a  sandstone  elevation  rising  from  the  surface  of  the  desert 
(pi.  2,  fig.  1,  top,  on  left  side),  but  at  present  the  entrance  is  some- 
what more  accessible  because  of  a  break  in  the  covering,  as  shown  in 
the  central  portion  of  the  figure.  In  the  interior  there  opens,  first, 
an  irregular  space,  from  which  passages  lead  down  to  other  rooms, 
and  from  these  to  still  lower  levels.  In  some  of  the  rooms  late 
Roman  potsherds  were  found,  bearing  witness  to  the  age  of  the  work- 
ing of  the  quarry,  which  is  also  attested  by  the  rude  rehef  in  the 
wall  of  the  uppermost  room  on  the  left  side,  near  the  present  entrance 
(pi.  2,  fig.  2).  This  rehef  represents  a  priest  sacrificing  a  gazelle 
before  a  row  of  five  gods — Re,  Atum,  Thot,  (?),  and  Har-si-ese.  As 
the  age  of  the  quarry  furnishes  the  date  of  the  two  roads  which  lead 
up  to  it,  they  must  be  disregarded  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  road- 
net  at  the  time  of  Amenophis  IV.    There  remain,  therefore,  for  this 


448  ANNUAL  REPORT  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION,  1915. 

period  only  the  so-called  ''round  roads"  which  above,  upon  the 
mountain,  connect  the  tombs  and  the  frontier  stel?e,  and  their  con- 
necting roads  which  lead  through  the  plain  from  north  to  south,  as 
also  the  roads  from  the  tombs  to  the  various  points  of  the  city.  The 
''round,"  or  encircling,  roads  possibly  served  for  the  military  guard 
of  the  city  territory.  As  regards  the  object  of  the  other  roads,  the 
most  plausible  assumption  for  the  present  is  that  they  connected  the 
working  places,  unfinished  tombs,  and  frontier  stelae  with  one  an- 
other and  with  the  factories  in  the  city. 

In  this  year's  campaign  only  a  few  large  estates,  but  very  many 
small  premises  were  cleared,  especially  such  as  already  had  been 
investigated  and  rummaged  by  our  English  and  native  predecessors 
during  the  excavation  of  the  city,  so  that  little  was  learned  as  to  the 
general  arrangement  of  buildings  on  large  areas.  But  one  assump- 
tion which  was  formerly  questioned  was  definitely  proved.  What 
was  formerly,  though  with  some  doubt,  designated  as  a  front  garden 
on  the  street,  is  now  proved  to  exist  at  house  O  48,  14  (pi.  3,  fig.  1) 
in  the  form  of  tree  holes  regularly  arranged  with  a  rectangular 
border  of  bricks.  The  general  arrangement  seems  to  be  that  the 
house  garden  proper  was  inclosed  within  high  walls  and  thus  hidden 
from  public  view,  but  in  front  of  the  high  w^all  there  was  another 
garden  surrounded  b}^  low  fences,  so  that  passers-by  could  enjoy  the 
trees  and  bushes.  This  consideration  for  the  public,  however,  is  not 
a  characteristic  of  the  oriental,  who  timidly  conceals  his  possessions 
behind  high  walls.  But  the  customs  of  the  ancient  Eg3^ptians,  espe- 
cially those  practiced  in  the  home  and  the  family,  must  not  be  meas- 
ured by  the  customs  of  modern  Mohammedan  Orientals. 

One  remarkable  habit  which  was  this  year  firmly  established, 
though  it  was  in  former  years  often  observed,  but  not  clearly  recog- 
nized, shovfs  how  conservative  Egypt  is.  On  the  estate  of  a  wealthy 
man  (house  P  47,  17)  the  main  entrance  on  the  street  and  the  entrances 
to  the  dwelling  were  walled  up.  The  w^alling-up  was  executed  when 
the  wooden  doors  were  still  in  their  frames.  Later  the  white  ants, 
which  at  Tell  el-Amarna  devour  anything  made  of  wood  or  similar 
substances,  destroyed  the  wooden  doors  behind  the  masonry.  The 
owners  who  departed  from  this  estate,  probably  on  their  return  to 
Thebes,  secured  their  property,  which  they  perhaps  expected  to  use 
again,  by  walling  it  up  against  housebreakers.  This  custom  had 
already  been  practiced  in  the  Old  Kingdom,  as  in  the  mortuary 
temple  of  King  Sahu-re',  near  Abusir,  and  is  still  employed  in  Egypt. 
Thus  several  years  ago  the  German  consul  general,  after  ail  the  pack- 
ing cases  of  his  predecessor  had  been  lost,  had  the  storeroom  which 
held  his  own  properties  walled  up  on  the  advice  of  natives  who  were 
familiar  with  the  conditions  of  the  country,  and  with  the  desired 
result,  for  the  boxes  were  all  there  when  he  departed,  though  some- 


Smithsonian  Report,  1915. — Borchardt. 


Plate  2. 


Smithsonian  Report,  1915. — Borchardt. 


Plate  3. 


2.    Altar  of  Bricks  in  House  P  47,  22. 


EXCAVATIONS  IN  EGYPT — BORCHARDT. 


449 


what  musty.  There  are  instances,  however,  in  Theh^^s  where  the 
officially  walled-up  tombs  served  merely  as  a  cover  for  the  pillagers 
of  reliefs  to  perform  their  work  of  destruction.  Every  method  for 
security  leads  to  devising  a  corresponding  method  for  breaking  in. 

The  largest  and  best  preserved  house  excavated  this  year,  and 
which,  because  of  its  excellent  condition,  permitted  the  reproduction 
in  a  colored  drawing  of  one  of  the  main  rooms,  the  deep  hall,  was 
that  of  General  Ea'-mose  and  his  housekeeper  'Jnet  (House  P  47,  9), 
where  the  incomplete  tombs,  already  known  for  some  time,  lie  in 
the  row  of  the  so-called  southern  tombs  in  the  eastern  mountain  of 
Tell  el-iVmarna.  The  house  is  of  special  interest  because  its  owner 
is  known,  and  the  more  so  since  it  supplies  some  information  about 
his  personal  history.  Under  the  father  of  the  king  he  had  been 
active  in  the  high  administrative  position  of  ''superintendent  of  the 
house  of  King  Amenophis  III."  His  name  at  that  time  vras  Ptah- 
mose,  but  under  the  young  king  he  became  "General  of  the  king  of 
both  lands,"  and  after  he  had  moved  with  his  master  to  Tell  el- 
Amarna  he  changed  the  name  to  Ra'-mose  (pi.  4).  With  the  con- 
stantly growing  emphasis  of  the  sun-cult,  names  in  which  other  than 
solar  deities  played  a  part  became  unfashionable  in  good  society. 

This  custom  of  altering  names,  which  has  its  foundation  in  the 
persecution  of  those  gods  who  were  not  affiliated  with  the  sun-cult, 
and  therefore  must  have  originated  at  the  time  of  the  highest  de- 
velopment of  the  Aten  cult,  is  important  in  the  chronology  of  this 
remarkable  religious  movement.  The  house  of  this  '  General"  is 
quite  close  to  the  confines  of  the  city,  which  was  not  founded  before 
the  fourth  year  of  Amenophis  IV,  and  was  therefore  probably  built 
a  considerable  time  after  the  court  had  moved  to  Tell  el-Amarna. 
The  name  was  changed  when  the  house  was  nearl}'  finished,  perhaps 
even  considerably  later.  Hence  the  opposition  to  the  names  of  the 
nonsolar  divinities,  as  we  see  it  in  the  above  alteration  of  the  name 
Ptah-mose,  regarded  as  characterizing  the  period  of  Amenophis  IV, 
may  be  considered  the  last  acute  stage  of  the  ''"reformation"  of  that 
king,  which  took  place  in  the  last  decades  of  his  reign.  The  intro- 
duction of  the  Aten  cult  was  therefore  not  an  abrupt,  sudden  phe- 
nomenon, but  a  gradual  development,  beginning  probably  far  earlier 
than  the  time  of  Amenophis  IV.  In  fact,  there  is  in  the  British 
Museum  a  statue  belonging  to  the  time  of  the  father  of  the  king 
bearing  a  regiment's  nam.e,  "the  god  Aten  sheds  his  rays  upon  King 
Amenophis  III.  Thus  the  so-called  new  god  of  Amenophis  IV 
must  already  have  been  highly  respected  under  Amenophis  III,  else 
a  regiment  would  hardly  have  been  nam.ed  for  him.  Thus,  after  all, 
Amenophis  IV,  both  as  the  ruler  of  a  gigantic  empire  and  as  the 
founder  of  a  religion,  was  only  an  heir,  and,  as  the  results  in  both 
spheres  has  shown,  not  a  fortunate  heir. 


450  ANNUAL.  REPORT  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION,  1915. 

But  to  retjirn  to  the  house  of  General  Ra'-mose.  The  first  thmg 
noticed  was  that  all  the  doors,  not  only  that  of  the  main  entrance 
but  even  those  of  the  inner  rooms,  were  framed  in  ashlar.  This  was 
later  often  observed  in  other,  even  plainer,  houses,  though  they  had 
no  inscriptions  as  on  the  doorframes  of  Ra'-mose's  house.  These 
stone  frames  of  interior  doors  are  of  some  importance  in  connection 
with  the  colored  reproduction  of  an  inner  room  to  be  described  below. 

The  Ra'-mose  house  also  furnished  new  data  concerning  the  '  'quad- 
rangular" room  hitherto  regarded  as  the  master's  room,  but  now  as 
that  of  the  lady  of  the  house.  Its  presumed  function  as  the  master's 
room  was  derived  from  the  fact  that  it  overlooked  the  courtyard 
and  the  storerooms.  This  would  presuppose  that  it  had  a  window 
from  which  one  might  look  out.  But  Egyptian  windows  in  the 
lower  rooms,  with  the  exception  of  the  ''audience  windows"  in  the 
palace,  are  arranged  for  lighting  the  inner  rooms,  being  placed  high 
up,  almost  at  the  ceiling.  So  that  this  reason  for  considering  it  the 
"room  of  the  master"  fails.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  two  rea- 
sons favoring  its  designation  as  the  "room  of  the  lady"  in  the  case 
of  the  house  of  Ra'-mose,  In  the  first  place  this  is  the  only  known 
instance  where  the  name  of  the  mistress  of  the  house  appears  on  the 
frame  of  a  false  door,  in  exactly  the  same  manner  that  her  husband's 
name  is  preserved  architecturally  pendant  from  a  real  door.  But  as 
all  the  doorframes  of  the  house  have  not  been  preserved,  it  can  not 
be  asserted  that  the  name  of  the  wife  occurred  only  on  this  one 
frame  and  that  therefore  the  "quadrangular"  room  must  be  con- 
sidered as  that  of  the  wife.  But  there  is  another  and  stronger 
reason.  An  annex  to  the  '  'quadrangular"  room,  accessible  through  a 
short  corridor,  is  evidently  a  wardrobe  room.  On  two  sides  of  this 
wardrobe  or  dressing  room  are  wooden  benches,  about  70  centimeters 
high,  resting  on  brick  bases,  and  wide  enough  so  that  on  and  under 
them  the  clothing  and  ornaments  of  the  lady  could  have  been  placed. 
This  may  seem  a  bold  assumption,  but  not  if  it  is  recalled  that  in  the 
female  apartments  of  the  palaces  of  Amenophis  III,  south  of 
Medinet  Habu,  each  bedroom  of  his  numerous  chief  wives  had  a 
wardrobe  chamber  fitted  up  with  like  wooden  benches,  though  of 
correspondingly  greater  dimensions.  The  wardrobe  chamber  near 
the  "quadrangular"  room  therefore  decidedly  favors  the  assumption 
that  it  was  the  "room  of  the  wife."  However,  it  will  be  the  safest 
plan  to  defer  a  positive  statement  as  to  such  use  of  the  '  'quad- 
rangular" room  until  women's  apparel  and  children's  playthings 
have  been  found  in  such  a  room. 

The  painting  on  the  walls  of  the  "deep  hall,"  the  dining  room  of 
General  Ra'-mose,  is  well  preserved  and  offered  a  very  interesting 
study  which  was  gladly  taken  up,  though  with  the  consciousness  that 
it  can  not  at  present  be  definitely  interpreted,  so  that  what  has  been 
accomplished  must  necessarily  be  considered  as  onl}^  a  first  attempt 


Smithsonian  Report,  1 91  5.  — Borchardt. 


Plate  4. 


Doorpost  in  the  House  of  General  Ra'-mose. 


EXCAVATIONS  IN  EGYPT — BORCHARDT. 


451 


to  reconstruct  in  a  drawing  the  interior  decoration  of  an  Egyptian 
living  room. 

The  ^^deep  hair'  or  the  dining  room  of  the  General  Ra'-mose  house 
was  7  by  7  meters  in  size,  with  entrances  from  the  northwest  through 
two  vaulted  doors  in  the  center,  and  on  the  eastern  side  of  these  a 
single  door  counterbalanced  by  a  false  single  door  on  the  western 
side  (pi.  5,  right  half).  In  this  way  there  was  produced  that  sym- 
metry which  is  an  absolute  requisite  in  Egyptian  architecture. 
Double  doors  with  an  additional  single  door  between  two  rooms  was 
at  that  time  customary.  The  two  side  walls  exhibit  the  same  archi- 
tectural arrangement:  in  the  center  are  double  niches  with  single 
<ioors  or  niches  on  either  side  of  these  as  might  be  needed.  The  back 
wail,  however,  has  only  the  two  side  doors,  without  the  central  vaulted 
doors  or  niches;  in  their  stead  there  is  on  the  floor  the  usual  low  eleva- 
tion thought  to  be  the  place  for  the  seats  of  the  master  of  the  house 
^nd  his  wife.  Corresponding  to  this  at  the  center  of  the  west  wall, 
there  is  the  usual  platform  made  of  limestone,  with  raised  sides 
(pi.  5,  left  half),  perhaps  the  seating  place  during  meals,  since  it  is 
provided  with  receptacles  for  waste  water,  the  washing  of  the  hands 
before  meals  playing  an  important  part  in  ancient  Egypt.  In  this 
dining  room  there  are  also  traces  of  four  pairs  of  columns  which 
stood  in  two  rows  (pi.  5,  the  two  holes  in  the  brick  plaster  of  the 
front),  and  the  limestone  base  of  one  of  these  columns  may  still  be 
seen.  The  arrangement  of  the  windows  can  be  determined  from  the 
position  of  the  staircase,  which  renders  an  opening  for  a  window  in 
the  middle  of  the  wall  impossible,  for  there  was  space  only  for  the 
door  lintel,  the  fragments  of  which  were  found  on  the  floor.  It  may 
seem  strange  that  the  doors  were  so  low,  but  in  Egyptian  houses  they 
were  made  just  a  man's  height. 

So  much  about  the  ground  plan  of  the  room  and  its  architectural 
•construction. 

The  painting  on  the  walls,  made  directly  on  the  Nile-mud  plaster, 
is  everywhere  nearly  as  high  as  the  remains  of  the  walls  themselves, 
reaching  in  some  parts  1.30  meters  above  the  floor.  On  the  floor  of 
the  room  were  found  fragments  of  the  painting  fallen  from  the  up- 
per parts  of  the  walls,  including  parts  of  riclily  painted  door  head- 
pieces, chamfers,  tore,  etc.  Such  were  the  data  from  which  to  re- 
produce a  colored  drawing  of  the  room.  The  result  is  quite  satisfac- 
tory, but  as  here  represented  in  black  and  white  (pi.  13)  the  light 
and  shade  effects  of  the  colors  could  not  fully  be  preserved,  though 
the  general  impression  is  accurately  rendered.  The  color  tone  of 
the  wall  is  greenish-brown,  like  Nile  mud.  The  doors  have  black- 
bordered  white  frames  and  white  chamfers.  The  idea  underlying 
this  color  combination  must  have  originally  been  to  represent  lime- 
stone doors  set  in  brick  masonry.    But  in  the  present  case  this  idea 


452  ANNUAL  REPORT  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION,  1915. 

was  forgotten  in  the  choice  of  colors,  showing  that  we  have  here 
not  something  original  but  a  mixing  of  various  older  motifs.  The 
door  frames  are  not  of  stone  color,  but  that  of  red-brown  wood, 
superposed  by  bright  yellow  hieroglyphic  lines.  They  should  repre- 
sent an  inlaid  decoration  in  two  wood  colors.  But  glaring  as  the 
yellow  tone  of  the  hieroglyphics  is  in  itself,  it  has  an  excellent  effect 
in  mass  upon  the  dark-red  brown.  The  folding  doors  are  yellow, 
while  the  wider  doors,  which  naturally  would  consist  of  several  ver- 
tical boards  in  red  brown,  are  yellow  and  red  brown,  each  board 
separate.  The  papyrus  stalk  between  the  two  halves  of  the  double 
niche  is  likewise  painted  in  natural  colors,  green  with  yellow  basal 
leaves.  Naturalism  prevails  also  in  the  color  scheme  of  the  door  head- 
piece of  the  tombs  of  Tell  el-Amarna  and  the  temple  of  Abydos, 
which  is  painted  in  the  yellow  and  red-brown  wood  colors.  The 
painting  of  the  chamfer  of  the  door  headpiece  is  remarkable.  Per- 
haps originally  a  frieze  of  uraei  (sacred  asps)  was  intended  or  er- 
roneously laid  on,  while  in  the  painting  coarsely  executed  rosettes  in 
different  colors  were  employed.  The  yellow  tone  of  the  window 
grating  is  due  to  the  fact  that  these  structures  date  back  to  the  period 
of  original  wood  construction.  Of  the  painted  garlands  which  ran 
as  a  frieze  around  the  walls,  and  which  in  the  New  Empire  were  al- 
ways rendered  in  the  correct  forms  and  colors  of  the  flowers,  enough 
fragments  were  found  to  permit  an  accurate  reconstruction. 

But  now  we  come  to  the  rather  doubtful  elements  of  the  construc- 
tion, the  columns  and  architraves.  Besides  the  white  bases  only  the 
red-brown  color  of  the  shafts  of  the  columns,  traces  of  which  can  be 
discerned  upon  the  bases,  is  assured.  The  form  of  the  columns  as 
palms  was  selected  after  old  representations  of  the  dining  room  in  the 
palace  of  Amenophis  IV,  and  consequently  a  green  color  was  as- 
sumed for  them.  The  avaci  and  architraves,  as  carried  out  in  the 
reconstruction,  may  have  been  yellow,  remains  having  been  found  of 
wooden  architraves  in  another  excavation. 

These  are  the  data  for  the  attempted  reconstruction  which,  in  many 
cases,  have  shown  that  this  dining  room  was  quite  a  comfortable 
place  and  that  the  color  scheme,  even  to  our  taste,  was  not  coarse  or 
glaring  but  produced  rather  a  pleasing  and  harmonious  effect.  Life 
in  such  rooms  must  have  been  quite  pleasant,  although  they  were  not 
very  well  lighted  as  evidenced  by  the  frequent  finds  of  lamps  and 
lamp  stands. 

In  exploring  the  environments  of  the  atelier  of  the  sculptor 
Thutmes  some  pieces  which  had  been  carried  away  from  his  work- 
shop fell  into  our  hands,  notwithstanding  that  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  the  finds  of  this  year  were  from  house  ruins  which  had  been 
already  exploited  by  natives  and,  perhaps,  also  by  our  scientific 
predecessors  at  Tell  el-Amarna.    This  year's  experience  has  thus 


Smithsonian  Report,  1915.  —  Borchardt. 


Plate  6. 


2.    Modeled  Head  of  a  Baboon,  Found  in  House  O  47,  5. 

Limestone.    Natural  size. 


Smithsonian  Report.  1915. — Borchardt. 


Plate  7. 


Amenophis  IV  WITH  His  Wife. 

Ri>lii'f  model  of  ro.-<iii.    Front  side.    About  one-half  natural  size.    Found  in  house  V  47,  2"). 


EXCAVATIONS  IX  EGYPT — BORCHARDT. 


453 


shown  that  in  making  museum  collections  it  is  worth  while  to  ex- 
amine methodically  places  already  rummaged,  aside  from  the  purely 
scientific  results  which  such  work  always  yields. 

In  house  Q  48,  1,  about  100  meters  from  the  atelier  of  Thutmes, 
toward  the  southeast,  there  was  found  an  exceedingly  well  executed 
model  of  the  head  of  a  baboon  (pi.  6,  fig.  1).  In  the  same  house  there 
also  came  to  light  beautiful  ivory  carvings,  which  later  on  will  be  dis- 
cussed. It  need  not  be  assumed  that  the  baboon's  head  came  from 
the  workshop  of  Thutmes,  for  some  artisan  probably  lived  there  in 
house  Q  48,  1,  who  could  make  such  a  good  model  of  the  baboon, 
especially  since,  together  with  the  baboon's  head,  there  was  found  a 
small  saucer  containing  remains  of  the  material  from  which  the 
model  was  made.  The  most  remarkable  feature  of  the  baboon  mask 
is  its  material,  a  brown  and  now  hardened  stuff  at  first  designated  as 

resembling  wax."  This,  then,  was  the  material  for  modeling,  and  not 
clay,  and  from  this  first  model  a  copy  was  made  in  stone.  By  chance 
we  also  found  the  head  of  a  baboon  made  in  limestone  (pi.  6,  fig.  2). 
It  came  from  the  house  O  47,  5,  about  100  meters  from  the  atelier  of 
Thutmes,  toward  the  west.  Judging  by  the  location  of  this  find,  it 
may  have  come  not  from  the  atelier  of  Thutmes  but  from  some  other 
not  yet  discovered  center  of  sculptural  works.  It  need  not  be  as- 
sumed that  the  limestone  baboon  was  worked  after  that  in  '^wax," 
though  many  details  suggest  it.  The  task  of  molding  the  head  of  a 
baboon,  the  sacred  animal  of  Thot,  the  god  of  wisdom,  must  often 
have  presented  itself  to  the  sculptors  of  Tell  el-Amarna,  since  the 
center  of  the  cult  of  this  god,  to  whom  the  sun  cult  of  Amenophis  IV 
was  not  at  all  opposed,  was  at  Eshmunejn,  close  to  Tell  el-Amarna. 

Although  the  authorship  of  these  two  models  must  be  left  unde- 
termined, yet  that  of  the  next  and  most  important  model  (pis.  7 
and  8)  m.ay  safely  be  assigned  to  Thutmes.  This  one  was  found  in 
house  P  47,  25,  about  125  meters  north  of  Thutmes's  atelier,  in  a 
region  which  is  still  within  the  circle  of  this  atelier.  Looking  first 
at  the  back  or  reverse  of  this  find  (pi.  8),  it  shows  nothing  more 
than  the  accurate  impression  of  a  board  which  was  rouglily  planed 
with  an  adze.  The  board  itself,  like  all  woodwork  at  Tell  el-Amarna, 
had  been  devoured  b}^  white  ants,  but  the  impression  reproduces  all 
the  details,  even  the  grain  marks.  The  material  of  which  the  model 
is  made  m.ust  therefore  once  have  been  so  soft  and  flexible  that  it 
could  with  great  sharpness  adapt  itself  to  the  smallest  differences 
in  the  surface  of  the  original.  At  present  it  has  the  same  glass- 
hard  consistency  and  the  identical  brown  color  of  the  ''wax-like" 
model  of  the  baboon  head  (pi.  6,  fig.  1).  Prof.  Schmidt,  of  Cairo, 
who  made  a  preliminary  examination  of  a  small  particle  of  the  stuff, 
recognized  it  as  a  kind  of  gum  resin,  probably  Oliban  (frankin- 
cense) or  bdellium,  with  an  earthy  (Nile-mud)  admixture. 


454 


AN^NUAL  REPORT  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION,  1915. 


This  stuff  must,  therefore,  have  been  poured  upon  the  board  while 
liquid  and  presumably  warm,  and  then  the  sculptor  modeled  into 
its  surface,  perhaps  with  a  heated  metal  instrument,  the  charming 
reliefs  represented  in  plate  7.  The  sculpture  represents  the  king 
and  the  queen.  He  has  embraced  her  with  his  left  arm  and  loosely 
lays  his  hand  upon  her  shoulder;  she  turns  w^ith  her  face  to  him 
and,  with  her  right  hand  busying  itself  at  his  bosom,  she  nestles 
on  his  broad  neck  ornament.  Costume,  type,  and  treatment  of  the 
bodies  leave  no  doubt  as  to  the  date  of  this  art  work.  Even  if  the 
location  where  it  was  found  were  unknown,  every  connoisseur  would 
unhesitatingly  attribute  it  to  the  time  of  Amenophis  IV,  and,  on 
account  of  the  unartificial,  dashing  execution,  with  the  same  cer- 
tainty would  pronounce  it  the  first  sketch  of  a  relief.  This  will 
suffice  for  the  present.  There  are  obviously  connected  with  this 
find  many  other  questions  which  are  to  be  discussed  later,  such  as 
the  real  composition  of  the  resin  mass,"  the  origin  of  the  several 
ingredients,  their  workableness  when  combined,  the  instruments  w^th 
which  they  were  worked,  their  suitability  for  casts  in  gypsum,  etc. 

It  was  intimated  above  that  in  the  square  of  houses  O  47  we  seem 
to  have  come  across  a  new  center  of  sculptural  finds,  for  in  this 
region  there  came  to  light  many  unfinished  granite  pieces  to  be  laid 
into  reliefs,  representing  wigs,  a  very  beautiful  torso  of  the  statuette 
of  a  queen,  though  the  wooden  head  of  the  queen  is  unfortunately 
totally  decayed,  the  baboon's  head  mentioned  above  (pi.  6,  fig.  1),  etc- 
Only  two  of  these  finds  will  here  be  specially  considered.  There  is 
first  of  all  a  small  limestone  mask  (pi.  9,  fig.  1)  doubtless  copied  from 
a  life-size  gypsum  mask,  many  examples  of  which  have  been  found  in 
the  modeling  chamber  of  Thutmes.  The  wrinkles  on  the  forehead,  at 
the  base  of  the  nose  and  around  the  nose  wings  and  the  mouth  are 
here,  and  in  a  non-Egyptian  fashion  well  indicated,  though  in  a  more 
schematic  manner  than  on  the  large  masks. 

Only  50  meters  from  the  above  there  was  found  another  study  (pi.  9, 
fig.  2),  a  portrait  of  Amenophis  IV,  which  in  its  almost  incredible 
delicacy  can  confidently  be  placed  by  the  side  of  the  best  reliefs  of 
this  king.  The  artist  succeeded  best  in  reproducing  the  eyes,  cheeks, 
and  front  of  the  neck.  As  the  main  concern  was  the  portrait,  the 
accessories  of  the  royal  costume,  such  as  the  headcloth,  the  frontlet, 
and  the  asp  (uraeus),  are  treated  in  a  secondary  manner  and  even 
to  some  extent  merely  indicated. 

So  much  concerning  the  finds  of  models  in  this  region  which,  as 
stated,  is  in  the  environs  of  a  new  center  of  sculptural  works,  not 
before  carefully  explored,  though  it  may  have  been  rummaged  by 
our  predecessors. 

The  last  find  to  be  mentioned  came  from  an  entirely  different  district, 
from  house  Q  48,  1,  which  is  also  remarkable  for  the  frequent  occur- 


Smithsonian  Report,  1915. — Borchardt. 


Plate  8. 


Impression  from  the  Moldboard  Found  in  House  P  47.  25. 

!{(>li(>f  inodci  of  rosin.    Hack  side.    About  one-half  nalural  size. 


Smithsonian  Report,  1915. — Borchardt. 


Plate  9. 


I.  Reduced  Mask  Model.  Found  IN 
House  O  47,  9. 

Limeslono.    Natural  size. 


2.    Amenophis  IV.    Relief  Study,  Found  in  House  O  47.  13. 

Limestone.   About  one-half  natural  .size. 


EXCAVATIONS  IN  EGYPT  BORCHARDT. 


455 


rence  of  art  finds.  The  baboon  made  of  gum  resin,  mentioned  above 
(pi.  6,  fig.  1),  comes  from  this  house,  but  the  other  objects  found  there 
are  of  ivory  and  as  far  as  they  are  dated  are  older  than  Amenophis 
IV.  Among  these  is  the  cover  of  a  box  from  the  time  of  Amenophis 
III  (1411-1375  B.  C),  and  the  exquisite  carving  (pi.  10),  to  be 
presently  discussed,  belongs  to  the  time  of  Thutmosis  (Thotmes)  IV 
(1420-1411  B.  C).  These  dates  lead  to  the  assumption  that  these 
objects  had  been  collected  by  some  craftsman  who  inhabited  house 
Q  48,  1,  to  serve  him  as  copies  of  patterns. 

The  art  work  in  question  consists  of  the  outer 
shell  of  part  of  an  elephant's  tusk,  about  12  cen- 
timeters long,  bisected  lengthwise  and  carved  in 
pierced  work.  Its  surface  thus  forms  the  half 
mantle  of  an  obtuse  cone, and  it  is  therefore  nearly 
impossible  to  reproduce  it  by  photography  and  Fig.  i.-cufi  with  repre- 
by  drawing  except  through  unrolhng.    The  work  mentation  of  "King  striking 

-J  ^  ^  ^     .         11  J.    1       down  a  captive."  Fragment 

which  was  made  still  more  difficult  because  of  the    of  a  relief  from  the  mortuary 

brittleness  of  the  original,was  executed  by  the  lirnSTone^^'one- 
skillful  hand  of  ^^Ir.  A.  Bollacher.  sixth  natr-rai  size. 

The  carving  shows  King  Amenophis  IV  striking  w4th  the  raised 
sickle  sword  a  Libyan  who  fell  on  his  knees  before  him  and  whom 
he  grasps  by  the  hair.  In  addition,  the  King  also  grasps  a  bow 
and  arrows,  as  customary  in  this  ancient  type  of  representing 
a  king  striking  down  a  captive."  This  incredible  deftness  of  the 
hand,  which  the  Egyptian  kings  displayed  at  this  ceremony,  at  least 
on  pictorial  representations,  is  already  shown  in  an  instance  of  the 
Vth  dynasty,  from  the  mortuary  temple  of  King  Sahu-re^  Behind 
the  king,  over  whose  head  the  sun  disk  is  to  be  noticed,  the  uraeus 
serpent  rises  upon  papyrus  stalks,  the  heraldic  plant  of  Upper 
Egypt.  The  scene  plays  before  a  statue  of  the  god  Montu  of 
Thebes,  who  presents  to  the  king  the  sickle  sword  and  holds  the  rib 
of  a  palm,  the  symbol  of  everlasting  duration.  In  front  of  the  god 
is  inscribed  what  he  is  saying  to  the  king:  ''  I  hold  the  sickle  sword 
for  you,  oh  beautiful  god!  With  it  thou  shalt  slay  the  chiefs  of  all 
foreign  lands."  There  is  nothing  of  particular  interest  either  in  the 
composition  or  the  contents  of  the  carving.  But  the  workmanship  is 
finer,  particularly  the  neat  execution  of  the  costume  of  the  king  and 
the  exquisitely  modeled  faces  of  the  prostrated  Libyan,  and  still 
more  so  of  the  king. 

What  purpose  did  this  art  work  serve,  or  to  what  object  was  it  at- 
tached ?  The  answer  to  these  questions  is  furnished  by  an  earlier  find 
from  our  excavations.  In  the  mortuary  temples  of  Ne-user-re'  was 
found  a  fragment  of  a  relief  (fig.  1)  representing  the  left  arm  of  a  king 
shooting  with  the  bow.  The  wrist  is  protected  with  a  cuff  against 
the  rebound  of  the  bowstring,  and  upon  the  cuff  appears  in  minia- 


456  ANNUAL  REPORT  SMITHSONIAN  INSTITUTION,  1915. 

ture  the  scene  of  our  ivory  carving,  the  king  striking  down  a  cap- 
tive." In  its  form  the  ivory  carving,  which  is  to  be  imagined  as 
backed  with  some  stuff,  corresponds  exactly  to  the  half  shell  of  such 
a  cuff  in  natural  size.  It  would  comfortably  cover  the  half  of  an 
Egyptian  slender  wrist.  But  this  neat,  fragile  carving  could  hardly 
have  stood  a  practical  use.  It  could  only  have  been  put  upon  a  statue 
of  life  size;  that  is,  one  which  according  to  the  inscription  of  Thutmosis 
(Thotmes)  IV  represented  the  king  shooting  with  the  bow. 

It  is  not  surprising  that  an  object  with  the  name  of  Thutmosis  IV 
was  found  in  the  city  of  Amenophis  IV.  It  may  not  even  be  as- 
sumed that  it  was  brought  from  Theves  or  elsewhere.  It  has  been 
long  known  that  the  city  Horizon  of  the  sun  cult"  already  existed 
before  Amenophis  IV,  perhaps,  even  probably,  under  another  name, 
as  was  then  the  case  as  to  personal  names,  such  as  Amenophis 
changed  to  'Ich-n-aten  and  Ptah-mose  to  Ra^-mose. 

On  account  of  the  great  find  of  tablets  made  in  1887  in  the  ''house 
of  the  royal  letter  writer"  in  the  royal  archives  in  the  palace  quar- 
ter, not  far  from  the  village  Et-Till,  the  surroundings  of  this  house 
had  been  again  and  again  searched  throughout  by  various  investi- 
gators with  the  result  of  adding  merely  a  few  unimportant  pieces 
to  the  original  find  of  upward  of  350  tablets,  but  since  the  early 
'90s  of  the  last  century  hope  and  further  search  were  given  up. 
So  that  on  December  15,  1913,  when  Mr.  Dubois,  the  Government's 
superintendent  of  buildings  and  of  the  excavations,  announced  the 
discovery  of  a  clay  tablet  in  house  O  47,  2  it  seemed  scarcely  credible 
(pi.  11;  pi.  12,  fig.  1).  A  portion  of  another  tablet  was  found  on 
Decemxber  19  in  house  N  47,  3  (pi.  12,  fig.  2). 

Both  these  pieces  were  found  in  premises  which  already  had  been 
thoroughly  excavated,  the  first  near  the  wall  of  a  courtyard,  where  it 
became  fastened  on  the  upper  edge  about  30  centimeters  below  the 
surface.  Though  the  surface  humidity  was  slight,  yet  it  caused 
much  flaking  of  the  left  margin  of  the  obverse  and  the  correspond- 
ing part  of  the  reverse  side  of  the  tablet.  The  second  piece  lay 
considerably  deeper  in  the  debris,  and  therefore  escaped  this  damage. 
The  surroundings  of  both  places  where  the  finds  were  made  were 
diligently  dug  up  in  search  for  other  pieces,  but  without  success. 

In  the  division  of  the  finds  these  two  valuable  documents  fell  to 
the  share  of  the  Egyptian  Service  of  Antiquities,  and  its  courtesy  in 
lending  them  for  examination  and  study  is  here  gratefully  acknowl- 
edged. Dr.  Otto  Schroeder  of  the  division  of  western  Asia  in  the 
Berlin  Museum  prepared  a  provisional  translation  and  explanation 
of  these  tablets.  The  smaller  one  (pi.  12,  fig.  2)  is  of  light-brown  clay 
with  darkish  spots,  probably  due  to  contact  with  chemical  salts.  It 
is  6.1  centimeters  high  by  3.6  centimeters  wide,  its  greatest  thickness 
2.65  centimeters.     It  is  inscribed  on  the  obverse  only  and  contains  a 


EXCAVATIONS  IN  EGYPT — BORCHARDT. 


457 


portion  of  an  Assyrian  syllabary.  Syllabary  is  the  designation  of 
tabular  arrangements  in  different  columns  of  cuneiform  characters, 
their  names  and  values.  Usually  they  consist  of  three  columns.  In 
the  middle  column  are  placed  the  cuneiform  signs  which  are  to  be 
explained;  the  column  to  the  left  gives  the  pronunciation  and  syl- 
labic value  of  the  character,  while  the  column  to  the  right  contains 
the  names  of  the  signs.  The  present  fragment  is  either  the  wTiting 
exercise  of  a  dragoman  who  was  intrusted  with  the  cuneiform  cor- 
respondence to  western  Asia,  which  the  large  script  would  suggest, 
or  a  reading  exercise  provided  for  such  a  dragoman  in  western  Asia. 

Of  much  more  interest  and  value  is  the  larger  fragment  (pi.  11; 
pi.  12,  fig.  1).  It  is  made  of  a  fine  light-red  clay,  with  a  height  and 
width  of  10  centimeters  and  a  thickness  not  exceeding  2.4  centi- 
meters. It  is  closely  inscribed  on  both  sides  with  the  so-called 
''Hittite"  stroke  of  the  cuneiform  script,  the  several  paragraphs 
being  separated  by  lines.  As  far  as  made  out,  it  is  the  first  part  of 
a  serial  literary  work,  bearing  the  title  '^King  of  the  Battle"  (Sar 
tamhari),  which  treated  of  a  military  campaign  in  western  Asia, 
of  which  the  present  fragments  delineate  the  causes  and  the  begin- 
ning. Unfortunately?  the  name  of  the  author  or  scribe,  with  which 
Assyrian  tablets  are  usually  signed,  is  here  wanting.  In  its  place 
is  some  wiped-out  Egyptian  red  ink  and  the  impression  of  a  finger 
besmeared  with  red  ink,  which  might  suggest  that  the  Egyptian 
name  of  the  author  or  scribe  in  Egyptian  script  was  intended  to  be 
placed  there. 

The  first  question  which  pressed  for  answer  was,  Did  these  pieces 
come  from  the  well-known  archives,  or  are  they  the  harbingers  of 
the  existence  of  deposits  of  cuneiform  tablets  apart  from  the  public 
archives  in  Tell  el-Amarna  ?  The  contents  of  the  two  tablets  do  not 
hinder  their  having  come  from  the  archives,  for  syllabaries  had  be- 
fore that  been  found  in  the  archives  by  Professor  M.  Flinders  Petrie 
and  the  existence  of  literary  texts  in  the  archives  may  likewise  be  as- 
serted. There  was  found  there,  belonging  to  the  library  of  Ameno- 
phis  III,  a  faience  label  of  a  wooden  case  of  a  papyrus  which  con- 
tained, obviously  in  Egyptian  script,  the  tale  of  the  '^Sycamore  and 
the  Date  Palm."  But  the  great  distance  of  the  location  of  the  find 
from  that  of  the  ''house  of  the  royal  letter- writer,"  about  IJ  kilo- 
meters, would  indicate  that  it  did  not  come  from  the  archives.  We 
should  have  to  assume  either  that  in  ancient  times  pieces  from  the 
archives  had  been  scattered  over  the  field  of  ruins,  or  that  the  peas- 
ants of  Et-Till,  who  discovered  the  archives  in  1887,  have  in  an  in- 
credible manner  thrown  some  of  the  pieces  around.  But  whatever 
may  have  been  the  origin  of  the  two  new  tablets,  it  is  certain  that 
there  is  hope  of  still  further  finds  of  tablets  in  Tell  el-Amarna,  where 
search  had  been  completely  abandoned. 


O 


PHOTOMOUNT 
PAMPHLET  BINDER 

PAT.  NO. 
877188 
Manufactured  by 
GAYLORD  BROS.  Inc. 
Syracuse,  N.  Y. 
Stockton,  Calif. 


Date  Due 

Elwvalfo^nfat  Tell  el-Amarna,  Egypt,  in 

Princeton  Theological  Seniinary-Speer  Library 


llllllllll' 

1 1012  00050  9515 


